I didn't say that Atlantic Canada needs an aggressive investment program, but Allan Cornford did, and his report had already been accepted by my client. I was building on what the organization had already used.

My model is not industry-directed, but shows the link between research (left side of table) and commercialization (right side). Industry focuses on commercialization while universities & NRC focus on innovation, according to the table.

The aim of this report was to determine if an applied research centre could be established around a "community college" in a rural region. There was no direction of what research universities or research institutions should be doing, only the creation of a bridge between the public and the private sectors with a focus on innovation:

"For the purposes of this report, a working definition of innovation, from Cap Gemini is “a robust creative process that turns out a very distinct output with significant impact on the market”. Therefore, what we are looking at in this study are the ways that applied research and development activities in the Miramichi area can help to create measurable, market-accepted products and services."

I understand that the public should drive the high-level agenda, but industry decides what is viable and how to commercialize it. This is the case of the SynergiC3 project as well. Perhaps that is why I was hired to do this report instead of someone with a vested interest in the local economy. In the end, the report was shelved, so it's a mute point. I have written this up in case anyone else sees some use in it.